證交所的消亡與重生 The death and rebirth of the stock exchange

The clue as to why the London Stock Exchange has risen sevenfold in value in the past seven years is not contained in its name. The best days of being a stock exchange are in the past, when they were near-monopolies owned by market-making members and could easily make money. That was long ago.

對於倫敦證交所(LSE)爲何在過去7年價值增長7倍，線索不在於其名稱。股票交易所的黃金時代是在它們近乎壟斷、由做市商會員擁有的過去。那是很久之前的事情了。

But a funny thing happened on the way to their demise. The businesses formerly run as stock exchanges became more valuable despite a wave of disruption unleashed by regulation, technology and competition. They should be in trouble but the leading ones have instead been transformed.

但在它們衰落的過程中發生了一件有趣的事情。早先作爲交易所運營的企業變得更有價值，儘管監管、科技和競爭帶來一波破壞。現在它們本應陷入困境，但那些領先交易所卻已經成功轉型。

This phenomenon is on show on both sides of the Atlantic. The IEX trading platform, made famous by Michael Lewis’s book Flash Boys, has applied to become the 13th US stock exchange. The buttonwood tree under which 24 brokers agreed to form the New York Stock Exchange in 1792 has become a forest of competing bourses.

這種現象在大西洋兩岸均有體現。因邁克爾•劉易斯(Michael Lewis)所著的《高頻交易員》(Flash Boys)而聞名的IEX交易平臺已申請成爲美國第13家證券交易所。1792年，24名經紀人在一棵梧桐樹下商定創建紐約證交所(New York Stock Exchange)，如今這顆“樹”已經成爲衆多競爭的證券交易所的“森林”。

In Europe a battle looms for control of the LSE, which looked vulnerable after the 2008 financial crisis but is now highly prized. It is planning an agreed merger with Deutsche Börse and rivals such as Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which owns the New York Stock Exchange, are considering counterbids.

在歐洲，倫敦證交所的控制權爭奪戰日益逼近，該交易所在2008年金融危機之後曾顯得非常脆弱，現在卻備受珍視。它正計劃與德意志交易所(Deutsche Börse)完成擬議中的合併，而旗下擁有紐約證交所的洲際交易所(ICE)等競爭對手則在考慮提出競爭性收購報價。

The oddity of all this activity is that, as one equity trader puts it: “The core business of matching buyers and sellers is not very profitable and does not have great prospects.” Being a stock exchange was fine while entry barriers were high and they could shield themselves from competition. As soon as that was undermined, particularly in the US, they became vulnerable.

所有這些活動的古怪之處在於，正如一位股票交易員所言：“撮合買賣雙方的核心業務的利潤率並不是很高，而且沒有靚麗的前景。”當進入門檻很高、而且可以讓自己免受競爭的時候，證券交易所的日子還不錯。只要這種前提遭到破壞（尤其是在美國），它們就變得非常脆弱。

The NYSE’s share of US equity trading has fallen from 72 per cent to 24 per cent in the past decade amid competition from new exchanges and “dark pools” — platforms run by banks and others for institutions to trade privately. Exchange fees are razor-thin; some dark pools in effect pay to attract business.

由於來自新的交易所和“暗池”的競爭，過去10年期間紐約證交所在美國股票交易中的份額從72%降至24%。暗池是指由銀行和其他機構運營的機構私下交易平臺。交易手續費極爲低廉；一些暗池實際上貼錢吸引業務。

IEX has provoked an uproar by seeking to impose an infinitesimal delay on outside orders routed through its exchange — 350 microseconds, or less than one-thousandth of the time needed to blink. The fact that regulators are wrestling over an interval of time that they would not even have noticed a decade ago shows how high-speed trading by computers has taken over.

IEX尋求對經由其平臺的外部指令延遲350微秒（不足眨眼所需時間的千分之一），這引發了軒然大波。監管機構與10年前它們甚至不會注意到的時間間隔較勁的事實表明，由計算機進行的高頻交易已如何佔據主導地位。

Trading volumes are huge — the global number of trades rose by 55 per cent last year — and IEX says the delay is needed to stop equity markets being rigged in an arms race of rapid-fire trading. Exchanges were once strong enough to enforce discipline on brokers; they now accept fees to let high-speed traders locate servers in their buildings and gain a tiny time advantage.

交易量是巨大的——去年全球交易量增長了55%——而IEX表示，爲了讓股市不再被高頻交易“軍備競賽”操縱，上述延遲是必要的。交易所曾經足夠強大，可以對經紀商實行紀律；如今它們收取費用，允許高頻交易商將服務器放在它們的大樓裏，以獲得微小的時間優勢。

If stock exchanges are so weak, why are the companies that own them so resilient? The answer is simple: the LSE is not really a stock exchange any more. Equity trading comprises about 10 per cent of its revenues (and 7 per cent of the revenues of ICE). The bulk of its business is based neither on shares nor on trading but on other securities and activities.

既然股票交易所這麼脆弱，那麼爲何擁有它們的公司韌性這麼強？答案很簡單：倫敦證交所不再是一家真正的股票交易所。股票交易佔到其收入的10%左右（ICE的股票交易收入比例是7%）。其大部分業務既不是基於股票，也不是基於交易，而且建立在其他證券和活動的基礎之上。

One of its biggest operations is clearing — taking care of the contracts after trades are done. Its SwapClear division now clears 95 per cent of the global market in over-the-counter interest rate swaps (private interest rate contracts reached by banks). This is less exciting or visible than equity trading but bigger and more profitable; SwapClear often clears $1tn of swaps daily.

倫敦證交所最大的業務之一是清算業務——處理交易完成後的合約。它的SwapClear部門現在爲全球95%的的場外利率互換（銀行私下達成的利率合約）市場提供清算服務。這不像股票交易那麼令人興奮或令人矚目，但規模更大，且利潤更高。SwapClear每日的互換合約清算總額往往達到1萬億美元。

Derivatives clearing has another advantage over share trading: it takes a long time. A clearing house holds cash to cover the moves in the value of a contract over weeks or months. It is a steady money-earner that is far less exposed to competition than a stock exchange. Fees such as these, from derivatives clearing, data and financial indices, are valuable.

與股票交易相比，衍生品清算還有另一個優勢：它需要很長時間。一家清算機構持有現金覆蓋一份合約數週乃至數月的價值波動。這是一塊穩定的盈利業務，遭遇的競爭遠低於股票交易。衍生品清算、數據和金融指數等業務帶來的手續費收入非常高。

The transformation of exchanges offers three lessons. First, regulation works. It does not always work as intended but it affects behaviour.

交易所的轉型提供了3個教訓。第一，監管是管用的。雖然它並不總是如預期那樣有效，但它確實會影響行爲。

US and European regulators encouraged stock exchange competition and, after the 2008 crisis, pushed banks to use clearing houses to curb risk. Exchanges altered course as their old business grew tougher and another one expanded.

美國和歐洲監管機構鼓勵股票交易所展開競爭，並在2008年金融危機之後推動銀行使用清算機構來遏制風險。交易所改變經營方向，因爲它們過去的業務越來越難做，而另一塊業務有所擴大。

Second, capitalism is highly adaptable. The world of stock exchanges was dominated for decades by entrenched institutions, particularly those in global financial centres such as London and New York. Changes in regulation and financial markets undermined that position so they adapted.

第二，資本主義具有高度的適應性。股票交易所世界幾十年來由老牌機構（尤其是那些位於倫敦或紐約等全球金融中心的機構）主導。監管和金融市場的變化削弱了這種地位，因此它們進行了調整。

In some cases, such as the LSE’s, stock exchanges remodelled themselves behind the scenes into clearing and data operators. In others, futures exchanges such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange outstripped stock exchanges in value or acquired them, as ICE has done. Within a decade, stock exchanges were absorbed into exchange groups that mostly do other things.

在某些情況下，股票交易所悄然變身爲清算和數據運營商，比如倫敦證交所。在其他情況下，芝加哥商品交易所(CME)等期貨交易所的價值超過股票交易所，或者收購了股票交易所，就像ICE所做的。在10年時間裏，股票交易所被併入主要從事其他業務的交易所集團。

Last, traditions endure. Exchanges are largely but not wholly unrecognisable from the days of the buttonwood tree. Networks remain powerful — exchanging contracts through a hub rather making a multitude of bilateral deals creates economies of scale. This applies as much to the central clearing of interest rate swaps as to exchange-based share trading.

最後，傳統經久不衰。與梧桐樹時代相比，如今交易所已基本上（但並非完全）不可辨認。網絡依然強大——通過交易中心交換合約，而非締結大量雙邊協議，創造了規模效益。這不僅適用於在交易所進行的股票交易，也適用於利率互換合約的中央清算。

Stock exchanges remain exchanges, despite all the fragmentation and upheaval. Unlikely as it once seemed, they are still in business.

股票交易所依然是交易所，儘管發生了碎片化和動盪。儘管一度顯得岌岌可危，但如今它們仍在運營。